The Marcus Smart trade rumors are rampant. This proposal has Marcus, Tristan Thompson, Romeo Langford and a first-round pick going to the Pelicans for former-Celtic, Terry Rozier. The theory behind the idea is that the Celtics need a pass-first point guard.
One of Danny Ainge's biggest regrets was allowing defensive ace, Tony Allen, to walk away in free agency. In my estimation, Smart has more value to the Celtics than Allen had at the time, and Brad Stevens should not trade The Wolverine away.
Marcus will be in the final year of his contract this coming season, earning a bargain-level $13.8 million. This past season, he had career-highs in minutes (32.9 MPG), points (13.1 PPG), blocks (0.5 BPG) and guess what - assists (5.7 APG).
The downside was his shooting. He only hit 40% of his field goals and 33% of his three-pointers. He will never be the second-coming of Ray Allen in the accuracy category, but he supplies energy, fire, ferocious defense and the willingness to do the dirty work.
He is the type of player every team needs and wants. He would demand a decent return in any trade, but that should not happen. He is totally capable of running the show for whatever new coach arrives in Beantown, and he can cover virtually any opponent of any size and ability. Come on, Brad. Save the Wolverine. Keep Marcus in the fold.
Tony Allen would have made a huge difference in 2011 and especially 2012, possibly getting the Celtics banner 18 that year. His presence may have led to Ainge never trading Perkins for Jeff Green, which would have been for the best. Danny drafted Avery Bradley to replace Allen, the same way he drafted Giddens to replace Posey, and while Posey's contract was horrible by years 3-5, he would have been huge to have on the 2009 and 2010 teams. Allen's contract with Memphis was never as bad as Posey's was with New Orleans, so letting him walk over having him on the 2011-13 squads was a HUGE blow. Especially when Green was lost for the entire 2012 season and then Bradley got hurt in those playoffs. Without them the Celtics were still up 3-2 on the Heat in the ECF.
ReplyDeleteHard to say if shipping Smart out of town would be as bad a move. I love Marcus, but the C's lost Allen for nothing and would presumably trade Smart for an asset. He has issues with bone-headed mistakes, poor shot selection and has detractors in his own locker room. He needs to rectify those this season. If he fixes those and improves as a player and teammate/leader and THEN Brad let's him walk for nothing I'd think we can start comparing that future blow to the one in which the team lost Tony Allen. Currently, if we traded Marcus a year before his free agency we'd have to see what the return is first and then how the team plays this upcoming season before making such a judgement.